1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a musical instrument and, more particularly, to an effector for a guitar.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various kinds of effectors are used to distort a tone of an electronic guitar.
Such effectors may be classified into an analogue type and a digital type. The latter has an advantage in that use thereof is convenient but has a disadvantage in that a sound quality thereof is low. Thus, in recent years, an effector using an analogue scheme tends to be mainly used.
The effector using an analogue scheme, which refers to a compactor, includes: an input unit 3 that receives an input signal from a guitar 1 or another guitar effector; an output unit 4 that transmits an output signal to an amplifier 2 or the second guitar effector; and a foot switch 5 that controls an on-off state of the corresponding compactor (see FIGS. 1 to 10).
Because a player adjusts an on-off state thereof during playing through the foot switch 5, the effector refers to a guitar pedal.
For example, in case of backing for expressing rock music or solo performance, effectors such as an overdrive effector and a distortion effector are required (see FIGS. 1 and 2), in case of arpeggios or strokes, to obtain a clean tone, effectors such as a reverb effector, a delay effector and a chorus effector are required (see FIGS. 3 to 5), when a special effect is required, effectors such as a phase effector, a wah effector and an octave effector are required (see FIGS. 6 to 8), and in other cases, a compressor effector, an equalizer effector, or the like may be used (see FIGS. 9 and 10).
Such guitar effectors include an adjustment unit 500 that adjusts a volume or a tone based on an output signal through a variable resistor in an analogue circuit (that is formed to perform adjustment by a variable resistor driving unit), and the adjustment unit 500 generally includes a level part 510, a tone part 520 and a distortion part 530.
The level part 510 adjusts a size of the output signal, and almost all guitar effectors include the same.
The tone part 520 adjusts an amount of a high-pitched sound and an amount of a low-pitched sound, and is configured by one variable resistor driving unit or two variable resistor driving units, and most of guitar effectors include the same.
The distortion part 530, which adjusts a degree of distortion for expressing a characteristic tone of the corresponding effector, is most important and is represented as various names.
There is one distortion part 530, the degree of distortion is adjusted by one variable resistor driving unit (knob). In case of the overdrive effector, the distortion part 530 is represented as drive (see FIG. 1), and in case of the distortion effector, the distortion part 530 is represented as dist (see FIG. 2).
There are a plurality of distortion parts 530, 1) a scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a, 530b and 530c are mounted (see FIGS. 4, 5 and 9), 2) a scheme in which a separate mode switch 550 is mounted and a distortion part variable resistor driving unit 530 adjusts degrees of distortion in different modes through mode switching based on the mode switch 550 (see FIG. 3), and 3) a scheme in which these schemes are mixed (see FIGS. 6, 7 and 8) are used.
In case of the reverb effector, a scheme in which the distortion part 530 is represented as time and a separate mode switch 550 is mounted is used (see FIG. 3).
In case of the delay effector, a scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a, 530b and 530b are represented as repeat, rate, echo and intensity, respectively, and the distortion part variable resistor driving units are individually adjusted is used (see FIG. 4).
In case of the chorus effector, a scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a and 530b are represented as rate and depth, respectively, and the distortion part variable resistor driving units are individually adjusted is used (see FIG. 5).
In case of the phaser effector, a mixed scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a, 530b and 530c are represented as rate, depth and res, respectively, and a separate mode switch 550 is mounted in addition to the same is used (see FIG. 6).
In case of the wah effector, a mixed scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a, 530b and 530c are represented as decay, manual and sense, respectively, and a separate mode switch 550 is mounted in addition to the same is used (see FIG. 7).
In case of the octaver effector, a mixed scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a and 530b are represented as oct1 level and oct2 level, respectively, and a separate mode switch 550 is mounted in addition to the same is used (see FIG. 8).
In case of the compressor effector, a scheme in which a plurality of distortion part variable resistor driving units 530a and 530b are represented as attack and sustain, respectively, and are individually adjusted is used.
Meanwhile, when a guitar is played, a player generally uses a plurality of tones even in the same song, and a plurality of combinations of the compactors are required to obtain the tones, respectively.
To achieve this, various combinations are formed by connecting a plurality of compactors in advance and switching on/off the compactors by a foot switch during playing, so that desired tones may be obtained (because hands cannot be used due to playing of the guitar).
When some of the compactors are switched on or the other compactors are switched off, offloaded compactors are bypassed and only switched-on compactors are combined with each other, so that distorted tones may be obtained.
However, the above-described related art has the following problems.
Although compactors (effectors) may express various tones by adjustment of an adjustment unit 530, the adjustment may be performed by adjustment of a variable resistor driving unit (manipulation by hands). Thus, a real player cannot adjust the adjustment unit 530 during playing.
This is because switching-on/off of the foot switch by manipulation of a foot as described above is the only scheme capable of controlling a plurality of compactors during playing by a player.
Thus, the player adjusts adjustment units of the compactors in advance before playing, and has no choice but to control the compactors merely by switching on/off the same during the playing. Thus, there are a lot of limitations in obtaining desired tones.
For example, in playing one song, a combination of the distortion effector and the chorus effector are required at backing (accompaniment) (see FIG. 11), a combination of the distortion effector and the delay effector is required at solo performance (see FIG. 12), and the level part (level) or the distortion part (dist) should be larger adjusted at the solo performance as compared with the backing.
However, in the related art, because the level part (level) and the distortion part (dist) of the distortion effector are adjusted to be constant and only whether the chorus effector and the delay effector are combined with each other may be changed, there is a problem in that it is difficult to obtain a desired tone.